Newsletter

Time will tell fate of metropolitan planning organization

When life is fair, the three words “a good start” will locally be the answer to two different questions.

The first will be the retort to the old joke from the movie Philadelphia that asked what is 20 lawyers chained at the bottom of the ocean. Second will be, what is the effect of the recent approval by all of the local municipalities, Jasper County and Beaufort County administrations of the newly mandated Metropolitan Planning Organization, MPO, to be known as the Lowcountry Area Transportation Study, LATS.

The “good start” it will be referring to is the beginning of a hopefully non-partisan effort to repair the spirit of cooperation between the two counties.

The MPO, which has been approved by all of the local governmental entities, will be structured with equal representation for each participating party.

The recent disconnect was caused mainly by the lack of a coherent structure and well defined by-laws as the two counties attempted to go forward together with an economic development strategy beneficial to each locale. Parity of input and decision-making was not always an overriding factor, causing Jasper County to join the Southern Carolina Economic Development Alliance.

If the new LATS follows the proposed design, all transportation projects meeting the mandated criteria will be reviewed and ranked by a team of staff specialists comprised of the non-political experts from the local governments.

With federal funding now flowing to the MPO instead of the Lowcountry Council of Governments, LCOG, the team of local transportation experts should be able to determine which projects can reasonably be expected to improve traffic movement in the region and also what the projected costs will be and then rank them for approval.

However, at this stage the biggest nemesis to progress will come into play, politicians and their bureaucratic turf mentalities.

The MPO boundaries have been defined and approved at this point, so any recommendations coming from the team of technical experts for consideration should be viewed from, and only from, the good of the region not by whatever district or local municipality a voting member represents. Once again, I use the words of that profound philosopher Mr. Spock from “Star Trek” that “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,” the good of the region mentality should rule.

Since the technical expertise will likely be provided at minimal costs from the local entities, the need for new positions of directors of transportation planning and assistant directors with senior planners etc., should be nonexistent, very little budgeted overhead resulting in efficient use of the federal funding, what a concept.

Let us hope the politicians or political appointees do not muck up this opportunity to return the idea that mutual cooperation results in mutual benefit for all parties within the region, and not what is in it for me and the inevitable destructive power struggle that ensues.

In the meantime, you can contact Joe Croley at Whenlifeisfair@gmail.com.